Personal Data Protection on COVID-19 Tracing Application in Indonesia Written by : Daffa’ Deta Prawira COVID-19 has been one of, if not, the most significant threats the planet has ever faced. There have been 1.632.248 cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, with 44.346 people dying as of today (Haryanti, 2021). To deal with COVID-19, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics as well as the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises developed PeduliLindungi, a COVID-19 tracing application.
The purpose of this application is to assist Indonesian health workers to recognize COVID-19 patients who have been in touch with them in the last two weeks using contact tracing. Once a user of the app is infected with COVID-19, the app will send a warning to all smartphones in close proximity, alerting them to the possible exposure (World Health Organization, 2020). However, in this digital age, digital contact tracing can become a threat to our personal data.
Individuals who have downloaded the app to their smartphone may be unaware that their personal information is being collected. For example, registering the user's full name and phone number is required where there is no clear limitation to how the Indonesian government may use the data, and the Indonesian government often monitors users' movements and locations without warning (Norton Rose Fulbright, 2020).
Unfortunately, there are currently no special laws placed in Indonesia to coordinate personal data security, but the Minister of Communication and Information Technology's Regulation No. 20 of 2016 concerning the Protection of Personal Data in Electronic Systems regulates the rights of personal data owners, responsibilities of personal data users, and dispute resolution. Moreover, Article 26 Paragraph 1 of the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions governs a person’s data (Bernadetha, 2020).
In conclusion, it is still unclear what is done with our data that we give to PeduliLindungi and how long the data is held by the government. The Indonesian law governing personal data privacy is still vague, and we must ensure that our personal information is protected by pressuring the government to establish specific privacy regulations and constitutions.